District 26 election: Incumbent Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart faces Darren Aquino, Christine Olivo

Republican voters in Florida’s 26th congressional district will choose between 19-year incumbent Mario Diaz-Balart and challenger Darren Aquino in the Aug. 23 primary election.

Waiting in the wings for the Nov. 8 general election will be Democratic candidate Christine Olivo, a political newcomer who is running unopposed in her party’s primary.

The new District 26 was reshaped during Florida’s contentious redistricting process. It covers the southern portion of the former District 25, stretching from parts of Miami and Hialeah, through the Big Cypress National Preserve into parts of Collier County east of Naples city limits, including Lely, Golden Gate and part of Immokalee.

District 26 voted for former President Donald Trump by 18.4 points in the 2020 election. Diaz-Balart, 60, had no opponents on the 2020 ballot and defeated a Democratic challenger with 60.5% of the vote in 2018.

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His advantage is reflected in fundraising numbers. Diaz-Balart’s campaign has $1.6 million cash on hand and has raised $1.2 million this election cycle, including about $700,000 from individual donors and $530,000 from political action committees. Major contributors include PACs for construction and defense firms, pro-Israel advocacy groups and Miramar-based alcohol distribution company Southern Glazer’s. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who has bankrolled conservative candidates across the country, gave $5,800, the maximum for an individual donor.

Aquino, 62, has $26,000 on hand, driven by a $13,000 personal loan to his campaign. As of March, Olivo reported raising $110,000, including about $100,000 in contributions and $7,000 from her own pocket. She has not yet filed a required July report with the Federal Election Commission, leaving her campaign’s current financial circumstances unclear and putting it at risk of FEC fines.

Diaz-Balart, the scion of a storied Miami political dynasty, is a member of the House’s powerful appropriations committee. In an interview, he said he is committed to controlling federal spending but also touted his ability to bring money back into his district. He said he had won tens of millions in funding for transit in Collier County and nine-figure expenditures for Everglades restoration and flood mitigation.

“Working with my colleagues here, I’ve been in a position to get really big things done,” said Diaz-Balart, who lives in Miami.

Diaz-Balart criticized the Biden administration’s energy policies, endorsing additional domestic drilling to bring down fuel costs. He said he has long been an advocate of hardening schools against the threat of shootings, while saying he opposed a recent bipartisan gun bill because it would “do nothing for actual safety.”

Aquino, a New York City native and television actor who played small roles in "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" and "The Sopranos," moved to Naples in 2018. He said his childhood struggles with polio and dyslexia led him to become an advocate for disabled people. He operates a small nonprofit — Advocates for Disabled Americans, Veterans, Police, Firemen and Families — which he said helps individual disabled people petition for accommodations.

GOP challenger Darren Aquino

Aquino described himself as an everyman who would take voters’ phone calls and fight for an unconventional set of policy priorities, including expanding Medicare and Medicaid to cover all Americans, ensuring access to braille ballots for blind voters and fighting veteran homelessness.

“I'm tired of both sides being full of themselves and nothing gets done,” he said.

Aquino previously ran in the 2017 Republican mayoral primary in New York City. He also finished eighth in Florida's 19th congressional district Republican primary in 2020, with just more than 1% of the vote but claimed he was the victim of election fraud, accusing Lee County officials of throwing out his votes. During that race, he said naturalized American citizens should not be eligible to run for Congress, and he released an ad calling for voters to pick a side in an upcoming civil war. In a July 6 interview with the Naples Daily News / The News-Press, he said the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.

Trump has continued to press state officials to revoke the 2020 election results. But Diaz-Balart — who voted on Jan. 6 not to certify election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania — would not tell this news organization whether he thinks the 2020 election was legitimately won by President Joe Biden, saying he was disappointed in the question.

“Let’s talk about what’s real,” Diaz-Balart said.

Trump endorsed Diaz-Balart in early 2022.

Democratic candidate Christine Olivo

Olivo, a 38-year-old Catholic school teacher and Miami native, said she grew up in a large blended family, with six siblings and step-siblings. Her parents were Haitian immigrants and money was tight, she said.

She said she got involved in politics as a response to Trump’s election. She helped register voters, worked on food drives, gave out sanitary napkins to schoolgirls and livestreamed herself praying at the White House for families who had been separated by federal immigration policies.

“It was rough dealing with Trumpism, and just knowing that we have become a country of culture wars and we have ignored a lot of the pressing issues that everyday Americans face regardless of party,” she said in an interview. “I was frustrated, and I was nervous and scared for my children.”

Olivo said one of her top policy priorities is supporting workers, including raising the minimum wage, protecting union rights and loosening income requirements for federal housing programs. She also endorsed Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

How candidates address abortion

On abortion, Diaz-Balart and Aquino staked out conservative positions while Olivo advocated a progressive approach.

Diaz-Balart said he supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade and that abortion policy should be left to the states.

Aquino said he generally opposes abortion but that he supports a national guarantee of abortion access to protect a patient’s life and in the case of rape or incest.

Olivo said she supports abortion rights and that no one should be forced to have a child.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Mario Diaz-Balart, Darren Aquino, Christine Olivo run in 26th District